Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

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The Ezra Klein Show - Trump’s Foreign Policy, Explained

Trump has been making some foreign policy moves I didn’t entirely expect. He seems determined to get a nuclear deal with Iran. He’s been public about his disagreements with Benjamin Netanyahu. He called Vladimir Putin “crazy.” And he keeps talking about wanting his legacy to be that of a peacemaker. 

So what, at this point, can we say about Trump’s foreign policy? What is he trying to do, and how well is it working? If he succeeds, what might his legacy be? 

Emma Ashford is a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a foreign policy think tank, and the author of the forthcoming book “First Among Equals.” She comes from a school of thought that’s more sympathetic to the “America First” agenda than I typically am. But she’s also cleareyed about what is and isn’t working and the ways that Trump is an idiosyncratic foreign policy maker who isn’t always following an “America First” agenda himself.  

Book Recommendations:
A Superpower Transformed by Daniel Sargent
The Strategy of Denial by Elbridge Colby

A World Safe for Commerce by Dale Copeland

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html

This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Elias Isquith. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Marina King, Jan Kobal, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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Pod Save America - Can Trump’s Health Care Cuts Be Stopped?

The health care of 10 million Americans is at risk as President Trump's massive tax cut legislation makes its way to the Senate. Will Majority Leader John Thune be able to cobble together a bill that the "Medicaid moderates," budget hawks, and hardliners can all agree on? Meanwhile, Stephen Miller freaks out at ICE leadership for failing to detain and deport enough immigrants, corporate America begins cutting ties with law firms that bent the knee to Trump, and Democratic presidential hopefuls begin testing the waters. Jon and Lovett embrace the schadenfreude, discuss the lies Speaker Mike Johnson is peddling to win over his Senate colleagues, and evaluate Senator Joni Ernst's "we're all going to die" message to her constituents. Then, Jon talks to Senator Brian Schatz about putting an end to Democratic navel gazing and fighting to stop Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."

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The Gist - Obama’s Elon

Aneesh Chopra, America’s first-ever Chief Technology Officer under Obama, joins The Gist to assess Elon Musk’s rebranded takeover of government tech via “Doge.” He outlines how the US Digital Service began under Obama, evolved during Trump’s first term, and now—chainsaw and hat aside—retains surprising policy continuity across administrations. Plus, even as a Colorado hate crime occurs under the banner of "Free Palestine", it's important to remember that violent people perpetuate violent acts, not impassioned, or even wrong sentiments. And in the spiel - can we please put an end to the term "Stochastic Terrorism"? Produced by Corey Wara
Production Coordinator Ashley Khan
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1A - ‘If You Can Keep It’: The Fine Print Of The Budget Bill

Last week, the House passed a sweeping budget bill, the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda.

The final vote was 215 to 214, just one vote shy of failure, with all but two Republicans supporting the package. Now, all eyes are on the Senate. It's their job to take the legislation over the finish line and deliver it to the president's desk.

Headlines about the bill are focused on tax cuts for the wealthy and steep cuts to programs like Medicaid and food stamps. But buried in this 1,100-page bill are a host lot of lesser-known provisions about immigration, artificial intelligence, and even one that would limit the courts' power by stripping away any consequences for officials who ignore judges' rulings. That last one is akin to "crowning Trump King" according to former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

We discuss what's in the fine print and what it means for Americans.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.

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The Bulwark Podcast - S2 Ep1055: Bill Kristol: The Grotesqueness of It All

Mike Johnson and Russ Vought outright lied on camera about the proposed Medicaid cuts and the impact they would have on millions of Americans. Marco Rubio lied about the children who are dying because of USAID cuts. And Joni Ernst is reimagining Christianity to be about Jesus teaching his followers not to care about the sick and the poor because they're going to die anyway. And through it all, Peter Thiel is doing everything in his power not to die—or even age. But one saving grace is that Ukraine kicked some Russian ass this weekend.

Bill Kristol joins Tim Miller.


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Bad Faith - Episode 479 Promo – Truth in Fiction (w/ Cory Doctorow)

Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast

Author, journalist, & activist Cory Doctorow joins Bad Faith to discuss his latest novel Picks and Shovels, enshittification, the utility of fiction as a vehicle to expose scams and create urgency around political action, and why so many people misunderstand the threat of AI.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

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The Daily - The Chaotic Personal Life of Elon Musk

A Times investigation has found that as Elon Musk became one of President Trump’s closest and most influential advisers, he was juggling an increasingly chaotic personal life and a drug habit far more serious than previously known.

Kirsten Grind and Megan Twohey, two investigative reporters at The New York Times, discuss why those closest to Mr. Musk are finally sounding the alarm.

Guest:

  • Kirsten Grind, an investigative business reporter at The New York Times.
  • Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter at The New York Times.

Background reading: 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Photo: Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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Start the Week - The uses and abuses of the atom

Professor Frank Close looks at how the quest to understand radioactivity and the atomic nucleus was initially fired by scientific curiosity and then by more human motives. What began as collaboration between scientists in the pursuit of atomic energy was overwhelmed by politics and opened the way to the possibility of nuclear war. Frank Close’s Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age: 1895-1965 shows how scientific knowledge is often advanced by personal convictions and relationships and takes us into the rooms where discoveries and decisions were made.

Nuclear energy is the most promising tool that we have to tackle the climate emergency, so argues Tim Gregory in his new book Going Nuclear How the Atom Will Save the World. He says it is time to debunk the myths about nuclear waste and radiation and that nuclear power is reliable and safe. Harnessing the atom is our best hope of providing abundant and clean energy to ensure an equitable and prosperous future.

For Baroness Natalie Bennett, former leader of the Green Party, nuclear has been a continual disaster. As an energy source nuclear it has been impractical, inflexible and unreliable; a dinosaur technology whose use has declined. She believes that the continued appearance of nuclear in policy debates is a distraction from renewables and energy conservation. She believes that we have not found an adequate solution to the problem of nuclear waste. And in the field of defence, the majority of countries want a ban on nuclear weapons. Presenter: Shahidha Bari Producer: Ruth Watts